[roastedpeacock]

From memory the most applicable prior art is the "region free" firmwares for various DVD drives and, the drive hacks used to play "backup" (and some homebrew) games on the Xbox 360 while bypassing some of the attestation protections for online.

> It would be great if you could have more control over the existing hardware in these drives

You can blame the DRM lobby basically forcing manufactures into a veil of "security by obscurity"